I want to jump off a cliff all day and then there is a moment ...

that makes me realize why I come back to school every day.

back to school, back to school

After a week off, I feel recharged. I feel like I can tackle what's in front of me. At the same time, I wonder what this next quarter will hold for me. I wonder what challenges will come up. I wonder how much work I will have to do to retrain my students after a week off. As one experienced teacher at my school said "teaching is a lot like being a firefighter. You never know what you are going to end up doing in a day." Having done both of these jobs, I certainly agree with the analogy.

one reason to teach in Arizona

FALL BREAK!

My mom came and visited. We took some time to play, but mostly got stuff done...the stuff that normal people do on a regular basis but you neglect when you are completely consumed by your work. Now I am taking time to plan for the next quarter, trying to set my students up to learn a LOT more than they did 1st quarter. I am also reflecting on how I can better involve parents, and also how I can keep my classroom culture positive. I can feel that things could explode...the students like me and trust me, but issues between students are brewing. These conflicts could spell disaster for my goal of a "positive, productive learning space." Hmmm. Right now I am focusing on having my quarter planned out very well--my learning objectives calendared, and some idea of how I am going to teach those objectives. I need to have a more coherent idea of what I am doing this quarter so I can communicate that to the students. This is much easier said than done...but it HAS to get done. Teaching is such an interesting profession...so many things to think about!

OK that's all I got for now.

I have to admit it's getting better

I have to take the moments to embrace the things that are getting better. I am FAR from an excellent instructor, but I am making lots of progress. My classroom is running much more smoothly...at least most of the time. There are still moments of chaos at the very end of the day.

A couple funny stories:

I had the kids correct a messed up sentence. In it was supposed to be "piece" but instead it was spelled "peace." I asked the kids what "peace" meant and one kid says "you know, like peace out, when you are leaving."

Monday my class got video taped by my program director. I had to step out of the room to round up some loose kids. While I was out a student went to the sink to wash his hands. While he was up there he broke the faucet. It came clear off. A couple kids joined him at the sink to watch as he put it back on. The funny part was that I had no idea this had even happened until I watched the tape this afternoon. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I can't wait to bring it up to the student tomorrow.

SO MUCH ASU HOMEWORK. OK, if i was a good student and did it throughout the week it wouldn't be bad, but it makes for a rough Wednesday night when you put it all off. but TOMORROW is the last day of this darn technology course that eats up so much of my time. Next 9 weeks is ESL which will be much more useful, I hope.

I am enjoying myself in my classroom more often lately...getting overwhelmed with frustration a bit less often, and looking forward to next week off. I hope to get my next unit planned well during my time off. It'll be exciting to have more effective instruction :)

ohhhh i'm a nerd, but i love it.

Possible Good News

Friday my principal told us that he is going to hire a new 6th grade teacher. This would mean 2 absolutely fabulous things: my class sizes would be normal, around 26 AND my students would have 1 hour for writing and 1 hour for reading. The only issue here is that these two subjects cannot be taught in isolation. I have to decide by tomorrow what I am going to teach. I am tempted to choose writing and have the kids read novels and use those novels as models for writing and to give us things to write about. Then the reading skills/basel reader would be taken care of during reading and we could focus on reading as authors. I don't really know. Teaching both reading and writing is really tricky! There is one part of me (a very silly part) that doesn't want to give up teaching reading after I just spent so much time writing a summative assessment for reading. I think I need to sit down with my PD and my vice principal to talk about what my course will actually look like. hmmmm.

This coming week, I have decided, is going to be better than the week that just passed. I have rearranged to desks in my classroom and soon will make a seating chart. I hope that this seating chart will alleviate a lot of the management problems I've been having in my classroom. Classroom jobs will also begin on Tuesday. The kids are writing letters this weekend to apply for them. I hope that investment in our classroom--if not the course itself--will increase with having students with jobs.

There are so many things to fix...so many things that are NOT working in my classroom, I just have to fix them a couple at a time. This is hard because I want everything to be perfect NOW. Well, not even perfect, but functional.

I am going to attempt to not think about teaching for about 30 minutes now before I get going on a long sunday of planning and preparation for the week.

Post me a comment so I know someone is reading :)

Mama said there'd be weeks like this....

This past week was so filled with highs and lows I can't even believe it. I started off the week with a bang, spent all day Sunday planning and was inspired to be more consistent with my students. Monday went great! Tuesday was fine. Wednesday was a disaster. I woke up (late) sick. I was frazzled, I didn't feel well and as a result I was not patient or consistent with my students. Therefore, lessons did not go as they should have. I felt awful physically and emotionally. I started crying in the faculty restroom and when I returned to my staff meeting my vice-principal insisted I go home and get a sub for thursday. I did not argue with her. I went to bed early on Wednesday and slept for 12 hours. Friday I was feeling better and had it much more together...which was a good thing because we had a LOCK DOWN. 35 6th graders in my classroom for 3 hours straight. AWESOME. Actually, it went fine, I figured out an activity for them to do and then made them read silently, but it certainly mixed things up.

I realized again that I still don't really know how to do effective literacy instruction. I have been looking at some sample long term plans and have decided that I need to follow a pre-made one instead of trying to make my own. I will have to adapt it because the ones that I am provided with are designed for 2 hours of literacy instruction each day and I only get one. I am not sure exactly how I will teach them everything. I am going to have to prioritize and be creative. I know I can do this, but I also know that it is URGENT that I get my long term plan in place because right now my instruction has OK but doesn't really have direction. These are all things that I know and have known it is just a matter of finding the time to do it.

In other news, I am losing a roommate. This is rough. She has been having a really hard time and has decided that it is best that she not continue teaching. It is strange to think of Phoenix and this apartment without Julie. She is leaving on a trip on Monday and I'm not sure when she will be back and how the whole moving process will work. Hopefully we'll get to talk about that before she leaves. I still can't believe it.

I continue...I woke up at 7:30 this morning and my alarm was not set til 9:30. Those of you who know me well will understand how strange this is. I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep...so I ate some fruit and got to work. It is time for my break to be over. I need to clean my room, something I haven't done since I started teaching 6 weeks ago. Oops.

A few quotations from my students...

"Can I eat cheetos during healthy snack time?" -Na Quay
"No. You already asked me that question and I said no." -me
"No, before I asked if I could eat spicy cheetos. They are different. Spicy cheetos are spicy. (sticks out tongue and squirms it around to illustrate spicy)" -Na Quay
"No. You cannot eat cheetos of any kind during healthy snack time." -me


"Ms. Burns, is that your husband?" a student, about the picture of me with my dad from graduation.

"Ms. Burns, is that your boyfriend?" a student, about a picture of me and steve from graduation.

"Ms. Burns do I have a beautiful smile (GIANT toothy grin to illustrate)?" Na Quay
"Yes, you have a very nice smile. Now sit down and get to work." me

student raises hand in the middle of my lecture "That's a really pretty shirt"
"Thank you, Na Quay. Let's keep it on topic." me


"Ms. Burns gots skillz!" --several 6th grade boys when I played basketball with them at lunch